Wednesday, February 27, 2013


The visit from the editor was a great success. He was well briefed, thanks to Dropbox, and ready with a plan of action. It’s a pity he didn’t turn up ten years ago, when my husband would have had a better chance of seeing it to fruition. Publication is planned for 2015. It's a big project.

Religion

I am sorry to keep yammering on about this. It is much on my mind.

We learned yesterday that the Cardinal himself doesn’t know who is accusing him, nor what “inappropriate acts” he is accused of. His accusers are priests of this diocese so, as their bishop, he must know them – must know them now, not just from 30 years ago. Bizarre.

Anonymity.  The sequence of events was this: The four priests lodged their complaint with the Papal Nuncio about a month ago. In the normal course of events, it would have been investigated quietly and thoroughly and we would have known nothing until/unless the Cardinal was sacked.

Then the Pope resigned, and the eyes of the world were on the Conclave. The four priests decided that this was a good moment to talk to a Sunday newspaper. In exchange for 30 pieces of silver? So it is they who have stripped the Cardinal of anonymity, along with much else. And it is the newspaper which is protecting their identities.

A small linguistic point: on Sunday and Monday the BBC kept speaking of “inappropriate acts with priests dating back to…” which might imply that hanky panky had been going on ever since. The phrase in the Observer is “…stretching back to…” But in fact the four are complaining about one unspecified inappropriate act per priest, which all are said to have happened in the 1980’s. Yesterday the BBC switched to that usage, “in the 1980’s”.

My comfort is that this is a big story. Serious, skilled investigative reporters are probably looking for those four priests even as we speak. The BBC, the Telegraph, the Sunday Times, all might be interested. Maybe the Cardinal will yet be vindicated, and the parish priest’s job in Dunbar could still be his.

Knitting

I’m knitting peacefully on. The news this morning is that the designer of the Relax has found a mistake in the pattern. Mercifully, she includes the correction in Japanese in her message to purchasers, and it is labelled in English (back neck shaping, rows 17 &19) so I don’t have to print the whole thing again.

Thanks, as always, for comments. I hadn’t pursued the seed stitch wrap at Purl Bee through to its price. Wow! And I’d have to pay customs on top of that. I had been toying with the idea of knitting a section every month or so and having it ready for next Christmas, but I think not. 

1 comment:

  1. rosesmama11:43 AM

    Jean,

    I took a look at the pattern for the wrap, which is just seed stitch over 109 stitches for however many skeins. I'm guessing you might have enough skeins in stash to make one. Or at least most of them . . . or perhaps a different range of colors . . .

    ReplyDelete